Crail Sixth Oldest in the World

Just a few photos from a mixed day weather-wise as relates to quality photos. The header for the website is from Crail's 17th tee, the best of the lot of photos that day. Write-up coming as is a lot of stuff on the redanman.com website.


Number 1 - Boathouse - All of Scotland seems in front of you



Two Tee - Owner of the Knowe - This is the kind of stuff Americans just don't get



Sometimes you don't know whether to look where you are going or where you've been, back up #2.



The Briggs - Blind green from the tee par 3 third



Fluke Dub - Fourth -A cape-ey tee shot



North Carr - Number 7 on the boundary, downhill to the left to a running green



Hell's Hole - 5 - and #6 Wormiston (green hidden)



















more ...

Handicaps - The Great Shame

Handicaps are supposed to be the great equalizer of players of differing skills. Anyone with a single digit knows what a joke that is.

I think it has come the time for the USGA to consider adopting the method of handicapping the rest of the world uses, only supervised tournament scores to count towards a legitimate handicap.

The internet is rife with stories from pro-ms with celebrities helping their professional partners at the ATT and similar tournaments 25 shots over 54 or 72 holes.

One can find many a regional golf association with posted exceptional scores and their odds. We used to receive such information from the Colorado Golf Association - member guest tournament scores of net 64 or better three rounds in a row - statistically in the billions or more - happening routinely.

I find it despicable for these scores to not be posted because a two-footer was given somewhere and thereby not being played under the rules of golf.

What a shambles of the rules of golf.

Just post tournament or supervised "medal plays" as the UK residents have every weekend at their clubs to determine handicaps. Only 5 would count. As opposed to 20 (throwing out the worse 10 and taking a mere 85% of the "differential as is done now.

Personally, I'll only play handicap if it's a couples tournament.

One -Legged Golfer? Can't have it both ways.

Please.

No more one-legged golfer stuff, Tiger's been a golfer with a sore knee. Talk about mountains out of mole hills.

He had stress fractures of his Tibia, not fractures. The MRI criteria for "stress fracture" is pretty low. Look it up and you decide, what ever builds the Tiger Brand, and believe me, it is being built out of this, not just protected. Nice bit of P.R., actually.

How did he so incredibly tolerate all that pain during the USGA Open and now cannot sleep more than an hour or so? How can you have it both ways?

He walked without a limp most of the USGA Open, he did not hop. He pretty much did not wince in pain until he swung harder than he needed to, harder than he really ought to. He should have abandoned that swing long ago, I wrote on a website I do not own back in 2002 when the ACL was torn (Not "jogging" after the Open Championship). He perhaps had secondary restraints fail last fall, but that's not when the ACL became incompetent. He probably was cutting or had that leg hyperextened from running into a depression or hole or the like. One can run just fine with a torn ACL as long as secondary restraints are OK and you are not cutting (like a footballer - either kind). Can't have it all three ways. (Or more) How about a reality check?

So did he do his regular warm up (Johnny Miller saying 9 shots with each club in the bag (High, medium, low x L>R, R>L, straight = 9)) as some have said they witnessed him warm up in person at the USGA Open or just hit 5 balls and sit in the cart as Hank the exaggerator has said before the USGAO? Can't have it both ways.

As for his recovery, if he's only sleeping an hour at a time, if he's not being allowed to to range of motion of his knee and not weight bear at least some - and his doctors are happy, there's a bit going on. If Tiger's ability to tolerate pain is now somehow magically gone, oh hell, that's it. Can't have it both ways.

He will play again.

He'll never have a "normal" knee. I surely hope is world-famous doctors did not tell him that because it's just untrue.

He'll not do as well as he has predicted he will or he's exaggerating one way or the other. Can't have it ... ...


But and I repeat to end this sordid topic:

He is not and never was and never will be a one-legged golfer, not with those perfect weight shifts he did in the USGA Open.

There are one-legged golfers out there and it is demeaning to them to call Tiger one-legged, shame on the media who resort to such sensationalism.

Happy Fourth of July

Is this the best, most innovative new course in America? Same say YES!




How about that Flag?

Divergent Path Exploration

Trying to help the layman. Look up the anatomical terms via Wikipedia (in another Firefox Tab) if you haven't been reading along up until now.

Yesterday's post was before I saw TGC's GC broadcast. (My posts are always timed UTC)

News: 3 weeks on crutches non-weight-bearing, no range of motion for 3+ weeks, "some cartilage stuff". "Told to stay off planes". "Leg swelled a lot on the flight home". "I've been in pain 10-12 years (loosely)". It'll be nice for it to be normal again (more or less)". Sorry, I didn't take notes, but these are close enough.

Malarkey. No simple ACL, not even close.

Normal again? No.

We're supposed to be awed that he did what he did on an abnormal knee and he's going to be better on his "better than new knee".

No.

What are the surgeries? What happened in there?

1 - All the pivot shifting required a complicated lateral meniscal (LM) repair. No good LM, no good knee. Period. Very likely, perhaps most likely reason for altered post op course. This post op course suggests this as most statistically likely possibility. The delayed range of motion (ROM) really brings into play the need for another procedure to mobilise knee as it is more likely to get stiff. Earlier intervention (day 9) than ideal (14-21, in my opinion) suggests this repair was needed. These do work, but better on the medial side because the blood supply is better.

2 - All that pivot shifting and a lateral meniscus transplant was needed. Not good. Not at all good. Worse than #1 rehab wise, timeframe wise, however ..... potentially better outcome if it works and they had a good match of an Allograft.

3 - OCD was bad enough to require osteo-chondral graft. Really bad. Borderline awful. Not so likely, but still possible. No confirmed evidence of OCD.

4 - (Reconstruction Comments) Contralateral (opposite leg) hamstring for graft - not such a great choice in my opinion. Surgeons do what they are comfortable with, though and they could have done a multi-bundle recon. Nothing ominous. Or is it? Ipsilateral (same leg) hamstring is not at all my favorite and certainly you don't want to add further damage to that knee (One that already swelled a lot, etc., etc.). Patellar autograft not used. An already significantly damaged kneecap-thighbone (patello-femoral) joint could be cause and also not so good. Risk of patellar baja (lowered kneecap) with this option. (It happened to me; I can't squat all the way on that knee I had done). Autograft middle third of patellar tendon is still most surgeon's "Gold Standard".

Special note: Tiger clearly chose not to have an Allograft - probably would have been best option for early return, he may have not wanted someone else's tissue. Small chance of added complications.

5 - Significant swelling on the plane - worry about cumulative damages. Now's as good of a time as any to suggest strongly that the knee will not be "better than new", if you get my drift. "Told to stay off planes" - increased swelling - increased risk of DVT and PE (Deep vein thrombosis (blood clots) and Pulmonary Embolism (clots going to lungs)) - just like Hogan. Those are bad things.

Tiger's a billion dollar baby and the economy is already in the shitter.
Don't shoot me, I'm just the guy with an education giving additional informational possibilities. Press releases can be rubbish.

Sounds like he's got an interesting road to travel.

Fortune Cookie says: May you live in interesting times. One never knows if that is a blessing or curse until after the times are over.

And just as Chairman Mao once said when asked about the long-term effects of the French Revolution:

"Too early to tell".

It is indeed too early to tell. Good Luck Mr. Woods.